Balls on the Table
by Chrmdpoet
Summary: She really needed to get over herself, over all this … feeling crap. It was slowly killing her from the inside out, fraying her seams and then yanking at the threads. Bo was her unraveling.


Balls on the Table

Tamsin seethed as she watched Bo from across the room. She felt her lip curl at the slide of Bo's hand down Dyson's arm, felt her stomach clench and protest at the intimate smile shining up at the wolf's scruffy face. She hated the way it made her entire body feel like a fuse, lit and burning slowly toward an explosion she couldn't afford to let happen.

She startled when Bo suddenly turned and locked eyes with her from across the room. She let herself be entranced for a moment, only a moment, before ducking back over the pool table and lining up her next shot. She slammed the cue into the ball so hard that it rocketed off the green and cracked loudly against the floor before rolling out of sight.

Tamsin could feel every pair of eyes in the place now digging into her, staring so intently that she could practically feel the claws of their curiosity gripping and tugging and tearing at her flesh, trying to get to her insides, her secrets, her reasons.

She clenched her jaw as she forced her gaze up to lock onto those of the people staring, one by one. "What?" she barked. "Is this a zoo? Mind your own fae-ing business!"

Chatter quickly resumed as people jumped to obey her order, avoiding her wrath and her gaze. Tamsin sighed, relieved though her ears still burned and her stomach felt tight and uneasy. She dropped her cue onto the pool table and bent over it, resting her palms atop the table and letting her head hang down between her shoulders as she took a long, deep breath.

She really needed to get over herself, over all this … _feeling _crap. It was slowly killing her from the inside out, fraying her seams and then yanking at the threads. Bo was her unraveling.

"Hey."

Tamsin jerked at the familiar voice, her heart dropping into her stomach and burning as she glanced to her left to see Bo standing there with two shots in her hands, smiling. Tamsin hardened her resolve, cracked her neck to both sides, and turned to face the Succubus.

"What do you want, Bo?" she asked, hating how harsh it sounded but knowing it was needed. She would have to harden her heart, slip back into the cool comfort of the isolation she had lived in for centuries, if she had any hope of surviving.

Bo held out one of the shot glasses, smiling sadly. "Thought you looked like you could use a drink."

Tamsin shook her head but snatched the shot and downed it in one fell swoop regardless. "Surprised you noticed anything at all," she bit out, "what with your attention being so thoroughly commanded by Officer Wolfpants over there."

Bo chuckled. "He draws attention," she replied. She hesitated before adding, "But then so do you."

Tamsin's head snapped up, eyes locking on Bo's. She choked down the hope that flourished so easily, so rapidly, when Bo's eyes roamed over her face. She couldn't succumb to false hope. It would kill her.

"Yeah," she snorted. "Hard _not _to draw attention when you can't even keep your balls on the table." She tapped the pool table, and Bo laughed.

"That's not what I meant," the Succubus replied, grinning, "but that definitely was an attention-grabber. You saying that was an accident?"

Tamsin frowned. "Who the Fae would do that on purpose in a room full of people?"

"Maybe someone who was _trying _to catch attention?" Bo ventured. "From someone in particular?"

Tamsin's heart began to race. "_You_?" she choked out. "You think I was trying to get your attention?"

"Even if you weren't," Bo told her, "You had it. You've had it for a while now, Tamsin."

Tamsin gaped at her, mouth moving wordlessly.

Bo smiled. "So, there's no need to glare at me from across the room," she added, her hand slipping over Tamsin's across the table before skirting away as the Succubus turned and headed back to the bar.

Tamsin's body burned and burned where she stood, hope licking like flames against her flesh.


End file.
